boripporal word perfection, wont be usually qualified by pretzing the word Christ, thus making is Christan Perfenin

In the wound place is be noticed that while nang the word perfection, he gives is a brief bus compretensive definition, and is definition of perfection is wimpy being perfect in love.

In the third place, Wesley, in these questions, plainly teaches that such perfection may be attained in this Ke, but he does not pause to say just when

Then, in the fourth place, he presents the duty of secking this perfection in love, presses the question of expecting to be thus made perfect in this life, and makes Lis climax by asking whether they are earnestly striving after it, using the quaint and oid expression of "groaning after it."

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Groaning after it " did not mean loud ejaculations, or any vocal utterance at all, but the groaning of the soul and the stress of the spirit, and was a strong suggeation of the earnestness of the inner man, but the expression seemed too strong for a later and, perhaps, more fastidious age, and, in 1880, the Methodist Episcopal General Conference changed it to "earnestly striving"-"Are you earnestly striving after it?" but the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, still retains “Are you groaning after it."

Wesley had frequently used the word perfection but this use in the reception of preachers was very succinct and unusually striking. Wesley used the words "perfected in love," but in the Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1788, that was changed to "made perfect "-" made

1.44 "Discipline of Church, South," 1914, ¶ 152. "Discipline of Methodist Episcopal Church," 1916, ¶ 162.

perfect in love," which was no improvement, but which makes no practical difference to the average mind.

But this series of three questions stands out as Wesley's simplest and most effective putting of the doctrine of Christian Perfection, and helps to show how Wesley could vary his expression at different times.

However it would not be wise always to infer that because Wesley had modified his verbal expression he had changed his conviction or faith in a doctrine, for, with a different form of words, there might be no change, or no essential change, in his views, or in his teaching, and the verbal variation might be merely for the purpose of expressing his conviction more clearly or concisely.

It is always safest to take Wesley's specific statement or definition on any particular point, as his standard view, and for which he would stand, than a casual remark, perhaps made in haste, and when he was expressing himself generally on another matter. Likewise it is best to select Wesley's shortest and most precise statement of a doctrine, and his briefest and sharpest definition as the key to his meaning.

Take, for example, his condensation of his doctrines that relate to the religious life, when he said: "Our main doctrines, which include all the rest, are repentance, faith, and holiness. The first of these we account, as it were, the porch of religion; the next, the door; the third, religion itself."1

Notice how much he packs into this summary. It is his theology in a nutshell.

When one undertakes to interpret John Wesley he should take, first, his specific statements, when he seeks to be exact; and, second, his maturest expressions. 1 Wesley's "Works," Amer. Ed., Vol. V, p. 333.

XXIII

EFFECTS OF METHODIST DOCTRINES

T

HE great proof of the possession of power is the demonstration of what it can do by what it has done and

now does.

Methodist doctrine can respond instantly to that test. History, and present facts, will show the power in Methodist doctrine by what has been done through the preaching and promulgation of the doctrines of Methodism.

Methodism, in the preaching of its doctrines, has over and over again proven its power to convince men of sin, and its power to win men from sin.

Under preachers, whether scholarly or without scholastic education, the same truth has had the same potent influence. Individual men, and masses of men, have been aroused, and so stirred, that the soul of each one has cried out, "What must I do to be saved?" and under the same Methodist doctrine hosts of human beings, of all classes, have been led to repentance, and the resultant spiritual power has shown itself in transformed lives that manifested a radical moral change and a religious regeneration.

Mighty demonstrations of this marvellous power occurred not only in the early periods of the Wesleyan revival in Europe and America, but down through the succeeding generations, and in almost every part of the world.

The statistics of world-wide Methodism prove most conclusively the power of Wesleyan teaching, and the efficiency of Methodist methods in the use of Methodist doctrine. The adherents of the different Methodistic bodies number millions, but the beneficent influence of Methodism cannot be limited to or measured by the numbers of its direct communicants, and John Richard Green, in his "History of the English People," truthfully declares that "The Methodists themselves were the least result of the Methodist Revival." "

1

How was it that there was such an immediate influence in the preaching, and why was the power so persistent and with such continuous and even increasing potency?

The answer is, first, because of the truth that was preached; and, second, because of the way it was preached. But the manner of the preaching could not do it of itself. Back of that was the doctrine, and it was the doctrine that made the preaching manner.

The doctrine not only reached the individual and the mass, while listening to the truth, but it had power in its general influence to overcome mere external religious formality, and to vivify, and change, the religiously dead to the spiritually living.

It produced those remarkable effects on isolated individuals, on communities, and on ecclesiastical organizations, called Churches. It saved the religious life of the historic Church of England, it revivified the nonconforming Churches of Britain, and, as Isaac Taylor said, prevented England from lapsing into heathenism. Methodist doctrine had also a profound effect on the

1 John Richard Green: "History of the English People," New York, Harper & Brothers, Vol. IV, p. 149.

social life of the people. It was felt and seen in the uplift of the lower classes, and among the working classes, as in the case of the Kingswood colliers, and in the case of the Cornwall miners.

Its transforming influence was manifested in all grades of society, and in a marked degree among individuals of the higher and cultured classes, so that it even reached those with lofty titles, and, among its adherents or hearers, it could count those who “wore a coronet and prayed."

It carried even political blessing and saved England from duplicating the horrors of the French Revolution, and made a new England, as an honored historian has said that England, as we know her, is the result of Methodism.

In America it did a marvellous pioneer work. It followed the advancing population as it pushed through the forest, forded the rivers and crossed mountain ranges, and found the scattered settlers, and then evangelized them, instructed them, saved them to Christianity, and organized them into Churches, and the theology of Methodism was the impelling force. Methodism saved men from sin and for Christian society. It laid the foundations of empires, and its many millions of members and its many Christian institutions the world over prove the tremendous and sustained power of the doctrines of Methodism.

As Bishop E. R. Hendrix, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, has said:

"The mighty reformation in morals ever attending Methodist preaching was due to the convictions produced by Methodist doctrine. The kingdom of God was within, a kingdom of righteousness and joy in the